Saturday 26 March 2022

Constitutional Chatter

 I sat and read through a piece by The Nation (the magazine) which centered on journalist Elie Mystal trashing down the U.S. Constitution.  The blunt side of the commentary?  

It's a lot of criticism over it being unfair in the world today.

I usually look at this commentary and direct a comment back....why don't you write a new draft Constitution and let us review it?

What you end up with....falls into one of three categories:

1.  It ends up being a four-hundred page document which is mostly about non-rights....than rights itself.

You know....the kind of document that you need a year-by-year review.....where you fight with various legal minds to update the document.

2.  It ends up defining things, with a undefinable description.....like saying a dog is only a four-legged creature but never going beyond that wording.  Remember the problem this week, where a potential new Supreme Court Judge could not define a woman?

3.  You end up with a legal document that cannot be explained in any high school because it's written in intellectual language that can only be clearly understood by a Master's degree lawyer.  

You know....like the original Bible held by the Catholic Church...only available in Latin.

One of the chief complaints about the current Constitution is that it lists rights in a 'holy-fashion', which is interpreted to mean that any situation can arrive with a 2022 event, and you are taking 1776 meaning to apply against the event.  People get bent out of shape with this application.  They'd rather something come out of thin air and fix the event with a Houdini-type magical-act.

For the benefit of folks....if you ever get a chance to read over the Alabama Constitution....you will find around 977 amendments attached to it.  A few are rights....a lot just say you can't take serious.  

There is an amendment which says dead animal removal in Limestone County is a county job.  You kinda wonder who was doing it before the state wrote this into the Constitution.  

There is also an amendment to cover waste removal in Jefferson County (note: the other 60 counties didn't need this for some reason).  

There is even an amendment to cover Alabama deceased state officials from collecting a salary (while dead).

My gut feeling is that if you turned these Constitutional enthusiasts loose.....you might end up with 15,000 amendments, sixty Supreme Court judges, and nine different ways to multi-vote in national elections.